If I get frustrated with this thing and give up on it, I'll post it up one here. I'd rather it go to someone that will love it rather then back on Craig's List for free.
Honestly, I'm not much of antique person. Other than some record players, nothing has ever caught my interest. I've been looking for an affordable portable dishwasher for a while and this thing caught my eye. I've never seen anything like it and kind of feel in love with it right away.
I grew up in the digital age so I've never tried to troubleshoot and fix something this mechanical besides a car. I'm in a bit over my head here, especially with the symptoms. It confuses me.
According to the wiring diagram, I'm pretty sure it's the rear timer from the servicing position (the larger black box all the wires plug in to). What's weird is everything appears to work. If I manually advance it to the rinse or wash cycles, everything functions but it doesn't advanced past those functions. If I click the cancel button it cycles through all cycles back to the stationary position. If I click wash / rinse / pots & pans, it cycles to the appropriate drain cycle, but never advances.
With that said, it washes like a dream. I ran a load of dishes through it manually advancing it with a screw driver from the pole that comes out of the large, black box through the metal bracket that holds all the mechanics (facing the front of the machine but with the front panel off.
The machine is in otherwise really good condition. I was incredibly surprised how good everything looked for the age of the machine. The owner said it was hardly ever used. I'm assuming it belonged to an elderly person that recently passed away. It was probably the original owner. The person giving it away seemed to know the history pretty well. It came from a house that was being emptied and auctioned off though. A lot of the stuff was older or antique.
I'm guessing the timing mechanism is frozen or something from sitting. Maybe it needs greased? I'll try heating it with a hair dryer tomorrow and also tap on it while it's running. I tapped on the metal bracket earlier today to see if it would advance or show any signs like it wanted too, but I'm guessing it's more like a car starter where it needs direct impact.
I'm not sure what kind of spray tower is in this thing? I'm very new to these older machines. When the top lift opens, the bottom rack lifts the tube part of the sprayer away from a gasket, up with the bracket. There's a jet at the top that shoots water to a rotating spindle fastened to the lid. The bottom of the sprayer has a normal spray arm, but one side of the sprayer arm has an additional rotating metal sprayer. The best was I could describe is like a tea cup amusement park ride.
Anyway, thanks for the help so far! If you want/need any more pictures, let me know. Any more advice is really welcomed. I'd hate to give up on this thing. It's just too cool!
